A while back I had started using MATE 13 on an old inspiron 6000, things ran fine up until I decided to upgrade to the 14 version of MATE. I do not know how but at random points whether using the computer or not it would freeze completely, I cannot move the mouse or use the keyboard so I hard pressed the power button (a sin I know) in order to power it down. Things never got better it kept randomly freezing so I tried reinstalling mint 13 mate again thinking maybe it was a bug on 14. Same issue. I tried KDE instead, no luck. In the end I decided maybe my computer just isn't what it used to be and powering down was just damaging the computer. So I now have a new laptop.

I just installed mint 13 KDE into my new computer (64 bit) a few hours into using it I'm online and suddenly it freezes, the exact same manner. I know I was not overloading the computer it's brand new! Is there a possibility that it's how I'm installing mint? I have other computers that are running it just fine but cannot tell you whether the CD is the same or even the program I used to burn it with. I'm now running windows and the system isn't crashing so I don't think its the hardware.

Probably crashes are due to your specific hardware, the Linux kernel version and whatever additional drivers you installed. Some hardware manufacturers give good support for Linux, others do not. If you want help with this, please give us some details about your computer:

But first and foremost start investigating your /var/log/syslog file (or syslog.1 if you can't find the right time in your syslog file). Look for the time of your crash and check for errors or warnings. At least on the problems I've had, the syslog file had the errors that were occurring just before the crash and those helped find the solution.

xenopeek wrote:Probably crashes are due to your specific hardware, the Linux kernel version and whatever additional drivers you installed. Some hardware manufacturers give good support for Linux, others do not. If you want help with this, please give us some details about your computer:

But first and foremost start investigating your /var/log/syslog file (or syslog.1 if you can't find the right time in your syslog file). Look for the time of your crash and check for errors or warnings. At least on the problems I've had, the syslog file had the errors that were occurring just before the crash and those helped find the solution.

turboscrew wrote:If you mean that you don't get to see the logs, try Knoppix live CD. Knoppix has been known to have very wide HW support.Then you mount your HD, and read the logs.

Thank you for your replies,

It seems a previous post of mine didn't go through. So when I tried to go to shell or actually whenever I'm on linux the system freezes at random, it may work for an hour or so or 15 minutes. I tried to see if it was because of something I was doing online but I could leave linux on without starting any bit of work and it would still freeze.

The inspiron 6000 I replaced was a 32 bit yes, I recently bought an inspiron 15r special edition this one is a 64-bit.

Because both of them froze in the same manner my assumption was that it must have been a way I installed it? I could understand the inspiron 6000 crashing but not the new one.

turboscrew wrote:Also bad by-pass capacitors around the processor can cause similar symptoms, but wit a new machine...... I really doubt...

Indeed, not likely, as Windows seems to run perfectly fine...

Linux, Unix, BSD, etc. are great on bog-standard hardware. And precisely for that reason, I always buy business line laptops (and even then, not the top of the line series): they feature proven technology, no fancy state-of-the-art technology, mostly with good Linux support. HP ProBook, Lenovo Thinkpad series, etc., they all seem to run Linux with less issues than the consumer laptop series. Many consumer grade laptops will eventually get some degree of hardware support from Linux, but it just might take a while. If you really need to run Linux reliably on a laptop, steer away from the consumer grade laptops. They may sport great graphics, sound, wireless, etc. features, but hardware support can be a rather frustrating hit and miss thing.

I know this is not helping you, lauravmarcela, a lot. But others reading through these forums might find it good advice. Please do keep us up-to-date, as we can all benefit from experience gathered and problems and solutions found by others.